This weekend, Vancouverites get a chance to meet the people behind Smell of Steve, Cinema Sewer, and Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman. If those comic-strip titles mean nothing to you, don't worry: they're not usually found in the magazine racks of the local 7-Eleven.

Which isn't to say that occasionally someone from the alternative-comics scene doesn't get his or her 15 minutes. Robert Crumb, Daniel Clowes, and Harvey Pekar have all seen their work brought to a wider audience, thanks to movies based on their creations. But those cartoonists who choose self-expression over superheroes usually do so at the risk of limiting their readership to fellow cartoonists. Comix & Stories, an annual Vancouver event, gathers together more than 20 of North America's finest for an afternoon of sketching, socializing, and, with a little luck, selling their photocopied wares.

"It's kind of all the above for me, but mostly an excuse to get out of town," says Brian Sendelbach, the Seattle-based creator of the absurd, Phil Collins--debasing Smell of Steve. "I know people in Vancouver," he explains over the phone. "And I've been doing it for a few years, so it's easier to keep on doing it than not. But it's always fun. I like sitting at the table and screwing around."

The Sunday (August 29) get-together at Heritage Hall also hosts locals like David Boswell, the twisted mind behind Reid Fleming, and Robin Bougie, whose self-published Cinema Sewer is probably the most underrated, and certainly the most entertaining, comic book--size publication coming out of Vancouver. These ink-pushers tend to support themselves by working for the man and can only spend a few hours a week producing their comics, most of which get distributed through the mail or at gatherings like Comix & Stories.

A few of this year's guests, however, have crossed over into the mainstream. Jim Mahfood, an L.A.--based graffiti- and hip-hop--influenced cartoonist, has worked for Marvel Comics, the home of Spider-Man, and illustrated the comic-book version of the 1994 movie Clerks . Fellow pro James Lloyd gets paid to stay in his Vancouver apartment and draw spaceships, alcoholic robots, and lobster-men for Bongo Comics' Futurama.

For Lloyd, Comix & Stories is an opportunity to forget about other people's characters and concentrate on his own. He hopes to have a new book, which he describes as an "experimental" comic, finished in time for the event.

"I think it [Comix & Stories] is really important for the survival of small-press comics," says Lloyd, reached at home, where he's currently immersed in drawing a Simpsons/Futurama crossover. "I wish there were 100 Comix & Stories, but there's only one a year. It's one of the few chances you get for some exposure....Hopefully somebody comes to the convention, picks up your comic, and shows it to the drummer in his band, and word gets spread that way."